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Why Anakin should have been 20 years old in TPM.

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The biggest missed opportunity to lock in every fan of the PT, IMO, was not making Anakin a 20 year old golden boy in TPM, instead Lucas chose the route of a 10 year old kid and a whiny 20 year old in AOTC.

Putting aside who found him, ObiWan or QuiGon, lets just stick with the same basic premise of TPM, but Anakin is 20 years old, and he is sensed by the Jedi as this powerful young man with the force and by the prophecy, he is the chosen one.

By having Anakin at 20 years old, he can do anything physically in the movie that a 10 year old boy can't. Then you make him LIKEABLE!!! He is a good kid who hasn't tasted success yet, so his flaws are not prevailent until he realizes his abilty with the force, as he is just this raw talent. He then saves Naboo by blowing up the Trade Federation Ship, same as TPM ending, but this time it is more realistic as he doesn't get lucky, and isn't saying stupid stuff like, "Now this is podracing!"

Flash Forward to the end of the movie, and the usual musical montage: Remember Luke, Han, and Chewy walk down to cheers in ANH, as it is more of a 'team' win for the rebels. Anakin walks down the parade in Naboo by himself to a standing ovation, and he loves the jubliation, this is his moment of glory, and as the audience gravitates to this 20 year old likebale kid without any flaws. The camera pans away as he smiles and utterly enjoys the cheers from the crowd, for the rest of the PT, everytime you see him begin turning to the darkside, you can think back to the TPM ending, and wonder, "This guy had it all, and blew it."
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I agree with you, and this reminds me of something amusing I read on theforce.net.

There was a thread entitled "Visual Storytelling at its Greatest: In Depth Analysis" in which posters were giving Lucas all kinds of credit for basically using the same shots from movie to movie. True, there was some value in some of the parallel shots, but the thread was filled with inappropriately high praise.

Lucas loves to reuse ideas. There's Boba Fett in Ep. II, Chewbacca in Ep. III, Jabba and Greedo in Ep. I (yeah, it was a cutscene, but Jesus! Greedo?!?) - and that's just the short list. And in TPM, Lucas had the chance to introduce another parallel - the journey of the father echoing the journey of the son, but he started Anakin at the age of 10.

The PT fascinates me. It could have been much more, so very much more, than it was.

Want to book yourself or a guest on THE VFP Show? PM me!

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Very true. When I read that article Zombie84 posted a couple days ago, it made me realized how good the character would have been if he was older. Start the drama with Padme early, and build it up! They didn't need that crap about him thinking she's an angel.
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CO! That makes everything sound really good! I read a lot of what ifs, and yours is the one that made me imagine it properly! It would have been perfect!

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I would make Anakin a bit older, like 16, but not an adult. (That would make the movie a bit more pg-13 all on its own.) Then, I'd take out the fart jokes and Jar-Jar. Then the Phantom Menace would undeniably be the best of the prequels.

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

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I would have put him in his late teens as well. The whole kiddy padawan thing never sat right with me.

But honestly, I think Anakin's age was a transparent attempt at pandering to the under 10 crowd.

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Another little continuity issue is from the scene where Obi-Wan's spirit and Yoda are discussing Luke's age, and Yoda says he is too old to begin his training, to which Obi-Wan answers "Was I any younger when you taught me?" Which leads us to believe that Obi-Wan did not begin his training till he was around Luke's age. Nothing wrong with this in itself (other than the whole prequel idea of training starting with "younglings"), but if I am not mistaken (and I very well may be) I believe Yoda gives one of the excuses for not wanting Anakin to be trained is because he is too old. At the age of nine. If this is right than Obi-Wan being near Luke's age was WAY too old.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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I like this idea CO. I don't think he needed to be 20--just of an adult mind-set. Personally the age of 17-18 is when this type of personal discovery is most potent, and the sort of ego development is most potent at this age as well.
Actually, this idea reminds me of the ending of Rocky. The original ending for that film was to continue after the fight, showing Rocky and Adrian in the empty arena, all the audience gone, some janitor sweeping up, and they would walk out the door back into anonyminity after this one night in the spotlight. But the most important change came in ending the film just before this, at the pinnacle of Rocky's victory--the idea being that we are freeze-framing on this one moment of his life when he will never be happier, that everything in his life had been building to that moment of happiness and everything after it is downhill, so we freeze-frame on him in absolute bliss and immortalise that moment in time.

That was the thing the prequels never really go--having an actual fall. I mean yeah Anakin is sort of a good guy that became evil, but its so much more tragic if he's actually a hero, the way we were told he was supposed to be. Theres nothing really heroic about Anakin in TPM or AOTC--he saves the day as a kid by complete fluke, then rescues his mom because he's obsessed with her, tries to rescue Padme but he's got an even bigger obsession with her, and tries to rescue Obi Wan but after all the arguing and ordering in the film theres not much emotion there and he fails to do this anyway.
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Originally posted by: C3PX
Another little continuity issue is from the scene where Obi-Wan's spirit and Yoda are discussing Luke's age, and Yoda says he is too old to begin his training, to which Obi-Wan answers "Was I any younger when you taught me?" Which leads us to believe that Obi-Wan did not begin his training till he was around Luke's age. Nothing wrong with this in itself (other than the whole prequel idea of training starting with "younglings"), but if I am not mistaken (and I very well may be) I believe Yoda gives one of the excuses for not wanting Anakin to be trained is because he is too old. At the age of nine. If this is right than Obi-Wan being near Luke's age was WAY too old.


Actually, it seems like you're imagining things, C3PX. Obi-Wan never talks about his own age in that scene. The dialogue is:

Yoda: He is too old. Yes, too old to begin the training.
Luke: But I've learned so much.
Yoda: Will he finish what he begins?
Luke: I won't fail you. I'm not afraid.
Yoda: Oh. You will be. You will be.

As you can see, Ben had already given his last line by that point, which was the similar, "Was I any different when you taught me?" which is probably what you're thinking of.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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As you can see, Ben had already given his last line by that point, which was the similar, "Was I any different when you taught me?" which is probably what you're thinking of.


Yeah, you're right, that is what I was thinking of. It has been a long time seen the movie. Disregard my post.

Though it doesn't make a lot of since that Obi-Wan and Yoda would just sit by and watch as the two last hopes for the future of the galaxy and the Jedi order aged beyond training ability. In fact, since training begins at such a young age in the PT (how old are those youngling? Five or six? It would have made more since for Obi and Yoda to each take a twin, go their seperate ways and train them, since it wouldn't be a very long wait before they could train them. Then if either were to be discovered, only one potential future Jedi and one Jedi master would be lost. Or if neither were discovered, as the case turned out to be, then two fully and properly trained Jedi Knights could have emerge from hiding and brought down the Sith, rather than one Jedi with very little training who came pretty close to botching it, and the other not even knowing they had the ability to be a Jedi, and no one to train her even if she did.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Anakin/Darth is a minor character in my version of Star Wars. I wouldn't need to flesh him out much at all, beyond the role he performs in the history of everything.

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

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Originally posted by: C3PX
As you can see, Ben had already given his last line by that point, which was the similar, "Was I any different when you taught me?" which is probably what you're thinking of.


Yeah, you're right, that is what I was thinking of. It has been a long time seen the movie. Disregard my post.

Though it doesn't make a lot of since that Obi-Wan and Yoda would just sit by and watch as the two last hopes for the future of the galaxy and the Jedi order aged beyond training ability. In fact, since training begins at such a young age in the PT (how old are those youngling? Five or six? It would have made more since for Obi and Yoda to each take a twin, go their seperate ways and train them, since it wouldn't be a very long wait before they could train them. Then if either were to be discovered, only one potential future Jedi and one Jedi master would be lost. Or if neither were discovered, as the case turned out to be, then two fully and properly trained Jedi Knights could have emerge from hiding and brought down the Sith, rather than one Jedi with very little training who came pretty close to botching it, and the other not even knowing they had the ability to be a Jedi, and no one to train her even if she did.


Yeah... damn! I didn't even think about that one before. People have been pointing out for nearly three years the stupid nature of their "plan", but sheesh. The more George adds on to this story, the less sense any of it makes. I remember seeing TPM for the first time and hearing Windu say Anakin was too old, mirroring Yoda's assessment of Luke and going, "Damn, how young do you have to be?!" Apparently an insanely-young continuity-breaking age...

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.